weeks a lot: turning two

I last left off in the middle of the MLB Envoy Program so let me wrap that up first. The 2 week training/coaching/inspecting/etc clinics finished up at the end of January and ended on a nice note. The younger players (under 12’s) impressed Tom and Pat just about every day from what I could tell. They each remarked that you could drop nearly all of these kids into any team playing well in America and they would fit right in. I’m going to expound a little more on the Little League World Series history and what these kids they are talking about are trying to accomplish in a moment. But another highlight of the last week of the clinics was a hike/walk I’ve been meaning to do since I came here.

I climbed a hill (unfair to call it a mountain even though it felt like one) across from a small valley from the baseball complex to see if it provided a nice wide view of the place. A bunch of players came with Godfred and myself on the trek. Godfred was great and basically acted as our camp counselor on a nature hike.

It took quite a while to get there and the view was pretty decent. I’m not sure how it translates on screen, I think it works in some ways to show just how crazy this place is. It’s the patch of grass and dirt tucked into the left side just above the swampy valley there. Way up on the hill on the right is Watoto, which is a very well supported international orphanage with about 2,000 kids staying there. Many of them venture down to watch the baseball during the day, and many of our older players venture up there to watch the ladies in the evening. I was able to grab some of them trying to impress the girls with their baseball skills.

This whole village is called Nikirebe (nich-il-e-be) on Masaka road from Kampala just before you reach Mpigi. It is benefiting in several ways from the baseball. There are a few small shops at the top of the hill that do booming businesses during tournaments or clinics. There is also a small natural spring on the complex property that provides all the water for the complex and also provides a lot of water for the locals. They are currently sending children down with huge jerrycans to fill up and carry up a pretty daunting hill. Their access to the water is safer and easier now and Richard plans to possibly pump the water up to the top of the hill where it would join with the main road and make it even easier.

Anyway, I liked that hike.

I interviewed Tom on the last day and I really liked the conversation. He echoed a lot of my optimism with the direction of baseball in Uganda and gave plenty of profound ideas about the game changing a culture of poverty or cycles of violence that often go with it (even if he doesn’t think he did).

The clinics end and I hop on the back of a pickup truck that Paul drives into the city with a bunch of other players. I am admittedly excited to get back to the city where my filming is varied. School is also beginning in the next week or two and I always enjoy filming in African schools and have done it quite a bit.

First, as promised a brief history of the LLWS. The little league world series has been played since 1947. The structure of qualifying tournaments has evolved over the years. Until 2001 it was broken down into 4 slots for American teams from East, Central, South, and West, along with 4 International slots from Canada, Europe/Middle East/Africa, Far East, and Latin America. Africa was in there as name only as they had never competed. Those tournaments were usually held in Poland, Germany, and Italy I think. (I’m still learning the history really so I’m not 100% on this stuff yet, forgive me). In 2001, LL went to a pool play format like the World Cup with 16 teams put into 4 groups for a group play round with 8 advancing to the knockout round. They created 8 regions for US teams and 8 for International creating a group called Transatlantic which included the Middle East and leaving Africa in Europe’s group. In 2008 that changed, in large part because of the Uganda team heading to Poland to compete. Little League split Europe into its own group and put the Middle East and Africa together. That is how it stands now.

Since 1983 Saudi Arabia has qualified 21 times with the other 5 years going to Germany, Spain, and Italy once I think. 19 of those 21 Saudi teams come from the Saudi Aramco Residential Camp in Dharan, otherwise known as the largest oil producer in the world. It’s a gated community exclusively serving the employees of Saudi Aramco complete with Aramco Schools, hospitals, and other services. It has 11,000 residents who are mostly non Saudi. The children of these families make up the Little League team that nearly annually goes to Williamsport and loses in the pool play (they advanced to the knockout round in 2006 for the first time). http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Saudi_Aramco_Residential_Camp_in_Dhahran

An African team has never qualified. Uganda is attempting to be the first.

With all that in mind I’ll get back to the daily logging and hopefully introduce as many of the players who will most likely make up that under 12 team in the next 3 weeks before I head back to America for a month.

2/2/10 - I settle back in the city and find out where everyone is. As I mentioned, school begins this week for the primary aged students. That doesn’t neccisarily mean they show up on a certain day. So this week I’m trying to get everyone’s schedule and make my own.

I find Alex working in town. He is cleaning a huge plastic awning for a local school. A friend of his needed the help and paid him 5,000 shs (about 2.50) for the day of work. It’s not the easiest work in the world. We chat for a while about the school he is cleaning for which I learn is mostly for orphans.

I set this evening for filming with two brothers on the u12 team named Augustus and Babou. They are both pitchers. Babou is the best pitcher on the team and would get a lot of attention if they competed in the LLWS. They have a family of sportsmen, they are always playing some kind of game when I arrive. Today it was cards.

I interview their father, named Alex. He is a sweet man who never listens when I tell him he doesn’t have to get me anything. I’m never allowed to leave without a soda, a donut, or some hot peppers form his garden that he knows I like.

He is a really proud father and gives some good lines in the interview about “this home is a home for baseball.” But I turn the focus to Babou’s age, which I’ve never really gotten a consistent answer about. He thinks he is 12 and turns 13 in August which would make him young enough to be on the u12 team this year. He really can’t recall the month though. He was born in the police barracks in Nsambya and he tells me he is going to go there to see if they have any documentation (doubtful). I’m hoping to tag along on that venture.

That’s about all the filming I can get done on this day as I spend the afternoon trying to find a guest house closer to the school that I’ll be spending a lot of the end of the month near.

2/3/10 - I have a weird “only in Africa” morning. I meet Godfred at Sharing, as I often do. When I get there I find him and notice a lot of people cramming into one of the classrooms. I ask what’s going on and I find out that its a press conference by the rappers of Uganda to discuss a recent shooting of a popular artist named Bebe Cool here. This is not the blog for that, but it was still weird. Anyway, what I really wanted to do that day was go to the school.

The school is called Reverend John and Crane High (Rev John for primary and Crane for secondary). It is quickly becoming the hub for young baseball players in the country with about 70% of the under 12 team going there and the other 30% wanting to. The education from what I understand is average, meaning quite poor in a global sense. They don’t even have a baseball field, but they train on a nearby patch of dirt of sometimes on the small basketball court. The school was built by Washington, who is also building the complex and is another one of the good guys for baseball here.

Not all of the kids have arrived yet, even though classes have begun, but I film the few who are there. This is Ivan and Kitembo. Ivan is one of the superstars of the u12’s as a pitcher and shortstop. Pat said he had “Derek Jeter-esque” qualities. Kitembo is one of the only kids I’ve seen in Uganda with a weight problem. He is actually a pretty good little first baseman and hopes training baseball will help him trim down.

Mac and Timo are also there and Timo has his name sewn into the back of his shirt, which is awesome. Timo is a bulldog of a player who plays without fear. I’ve seen him take balls off of every part of his body without a complaint. He is too small and weak at this point to turn that into great results but he is the kind of kid that could grow into a great player with the way he plays. Mac is a decent player with good height and a good attitude.

Regis is also there who is actually from Rwanda but goes to school here. His father knows Washington and that’s how he ended up here. He knows the game well and plays right.

2/4/10 - I head back to Augustus and Babou’s place for some shots I knew I could get in the right light and to interview their mother who I had met and never really talked to.

The interview was quite good from what I can tell, we conducted it in Luganda. I’m proud to say I know enough to ask a few questions on my own, but I use the ever helpful Godfred to interpret most of her answers.

She knows about as much as the Dad did about their birth. She thinks August sounds about right. She also gives a bunch of good stuff about how competiitive the boys have always been with each other.

After the interview the boys play some ball in the yard. This is what I had come for in a lot of ways. The youngest named Exmo makes the ball out of a few plastic bags that he rolls into a tight ball and seals by melting the outer one on the cooking pot.

A few neighborhood boys play soccer while Augustus and Babou take some batting practice. The smoke is from a nearby trash fire (thats the system here). It makes for some crazy filming.

2/5/10 - I start the day by finding George helping Benard work out at Sharing’s gym. Benard has really been trying to build up his strength to improve his pitching. George is the perfect guy to help him out.

After the workout George sits down with the Japanese Kyambogo coach named Takasaka to discuss the baseball program for the next few months. They are attempting to set up regular league games for the u12 teams which will be held at the complex probably 2 weekends a month. This step is vital for creating the best u12 ugandan team possible. George is a tremendously busy man these days and he couldn’t be happier.

After the meeting I follow Alex to visit Lillian. She is living in Entebee now with her older sister. It is a much better living situation where she isn’t beaten and is living comfortably and going to school locally. Alex meets her family for the first time, and I think they really like him. He asks their permission to let her train with them sometimes. That answer is still up in the air.

We walk down to a small beach on lake Victoria to have some food. It’s a pretty romantic setting for two 14 year olds.

I’m still trying to gauge how much she really likes him. When he goes to the bathroom I quickly ask her “So, is Alex your boyfriend?” She laughs and says “I don’t know, I don’t want to dissipoint him.” And that’s all I can get before he comes back.

2/6/10 - It rains a ton today and cancels any plans I have to shoot with George.

2/7/10 - This is the first day that MLB is on local (non expensive satellite) tv in Uganda, it’s somewhat monumental. It’s slated to be on from 8am-10am most of the commercials are cut out so you can actually fit the game into that slot.

I go to Reverened John to film a bunch of boys who gather in a classroom to watch it. The games until April will be from last year. This game is, of course, the Yankees playing the Rays. It is Derek Jeter’s Gehrig tying game. If you don’t know or care who Derek Jeter is it’s actually not that great of a game with Jeff Niemann throwing 8 strong innings before the Yankees come back to win the game 4-2 off of the Rays awful bullpen.

The guys really love watching the game and it leaves them really energized to go out and practice. The Teacher/Coach Mark leads a little Q&A after and the guys have some really good questions and observations about what they saw. It definitely was a good debut, I hope people tuned in. It will be every Sunday at 8am.

After the game the guys go over to the small field to train, a lot of them are just learning and a few are regular players and stars of the u12 team.

I have a feeling I’ll be spending a lot of time at this school/field over the next months.

2/8/10 - I head back to the complex in Mpigi for some media management and to edit a 30 second promo that NTV will run during the baseball games on Sundays. Something along the lines of “If you are interested in participating in baseball as a coach or player contact this person to find the nearest and next event.” This person is of course, George. He hopefully will be getting a lot of phone calls. That’s all for this week folks.